Linux Video and Sound Tools

This page is:
http://joelandrebecca.martintribe.org/linuxconf/multimedia.html


Good reference site for all the multimedia tools described below including
packages for Fedora Core 2:
http://ccrma.stanford.edu/planetccrma/software/soundapps.html




INSTALLATION:

- Update /etc/yum.conf to http://www.fedorafaq.com/samples/yum.conf if
  haven't already. Run the following commands in a terminal

cd /etc/
mv yum.conf yum.conf.orig
wget http://www.fedorafaq.com/samples/yum.conf

- Add DAG information to the end of yum.conf:

--------------------
[dag]
name=Dag RPM Repository for Fedora Core
baseurl=http://apt.sw.be/fedora/$releasever/en/$basearch/dag
--------------------

- Install the applications, from a terminal window run the following:

yum install timidity++
yum install audacity
wget http://joelandrebecca.martintribe.org/linuxconf/media_download
chmod +x media_download
./media_download




APPLICATIONS:

ALSA (Advanced Linux Sound Architecture)
    - "The Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA) provides audio and
      MIDI functionality to the Linux operating system."
    - Linux kernel sound card drivers and tools
    - Replaces Open Sound System

sox
    - "SoX is the swiss army knife of sound processing programs.  SoX
      is a command line utility that can convert various formats of
      computer audio files in to other formats.  It can also apply
      various effects to these sound files during the conversion.  As
      an added bonus, SoX can play and record audio files on several
      unix style platforms."
    - Unfortunately best documentation is probably: man sox

timidity++ 
    - "TiMidity++ is a software synthesizer. It can play MIDI files by
      converting them into PCM waveform data; give it a MIDI data
      along with digital instrument data files, then it synthesizes
      them in real-time, and plays. It can not only play sounds, but
      also can save the generated waveforms into hard disks as various
      audio file formats.  The sound quality is achieved by using
      a GUS patch set. GUS patches are made from digitized recordings
      of real instruments."
    - Documentation:
      http://timidity-docs.sourceforge.jp/cgi-bin/hiki/hiki.cgi

audacity
    - "Audacity is a free audio editor. You can record sounds, play
      sounds, import and export WAV, AIFF, and MP3 files, and more."
    - Tutorial: http://www.djcj.org/LAU/quicktoots/toots/audacity/

JACK (Jack Audio Connection Kit)
    - "JACK is a low-latency audio server, written primarily for the
       GNU/Linux operating system. It can connect a number of different
       applications to an audio device, as well as allowing them to
       share audio between themselves. JACK is different from other
       audio server efforts in that it has been designed from the
       ground up to be suitable for professional audio work. This
       means that it focuses on two key areas: synchronous execution
       of all clients, and low latency operation."
    - jackd -R -d alsa (as root)
       
LADSPA
    - "Linux Audio Developer's Simple Plugin API (LADSPA). The main rpm
       includes the header file needed to compile plugins and some
       dorumentation and simple example programs.

jack-rack
    - "Jack Rack is a stereo LADSPA effects rack for the JACK audio API.
       It uses GTK+ 2 for the GUI. LADSPA version 1.1 is needed."

Rosegarden
    - "Rosegarden-4 is an attractive, user-friendly MIDI and audio
      sequencer, notation editor, and general-purpose music
      composition and editing application for Unix and Linux."
    - Tutorial: http://rosegarden.sourceforge.net/tutorial/


hydrogen
    - "Hydrogen is a "free" pattern based drum machine for GNU/Linux.
      The application goal is to allow the simple and fast creation of
      rhythmic patterns."
    - Manual:
      http://hydrogen.sourceforge.net/sections/tutorial/manual_en.html

ardour
    - "Ardour is a multichannel hard disk recorder (HDR) and digital
      audio workstation (DAW)."
    - Manual: http://ardour.org/manual.pdf

cinelerra
    - "An advanced content multimedia creation system for Linux.
      Cinelerra takes what normally is a boring web server operating
      system - studied in computer science classrooms, hidden in back
      offices - and turns it into a 50,000 watt flamethrower of
      multimedia editing power. Cinelerra does primarily 3 main
      things: capturing, compositing , and editing audio and video."
    - Tutorial: http://www.robfisher.net/video/cinelerra1.html